a. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a precast wall section and a method of constructing a wall.
b. Related Art
Concrete wall sections are well known and are used for a variety of purposes for example storing bulk products in a defined area, creating temporary wall structures while building work is being carried out for example as well as for creating more permanent wall sections. Wall created from such sections have the advantage that they are precast off site and delivered to the required location where the walls simply built by placing the sections where required and bolting them together, if desired, once placed.
A problem with known concrete wall sections and methods of building a wall from such structures is that if it is desired to create a wall for example running beside a newly built road where it is required to retain large quantities of soil, for example then the bulk and weight of the concrete wall sections required to withstand such required load is not very practical. It is a known problem that if a section is subject to an impact, for example if a section is hit by a fork lift truck during loading of bulk product, then and individual section can fail because the force of the impact is not spread through to other concrete wall sections.
A more robust structure may be created by casting concrete walls cast in situ. When creating such a wall, formwork known in the trade as ‘shuttering’ is built to hold the concrete in place whilst it hardens sufficiently. Such a formwork structure is usually made from huge steel plates bolted together and braced against the ground in order to withstand the pressures involved in retaining large amounts of concrete during hardening.
Before the concrete is poured into the formwork/shuttering any reinforcing structure, usually formed from steel bars, are inserted and tied together.
The cost of the shuttering system can cost more than ten times the cost of the materials required for the wall itself and furthermore, if walls are required which are three of four meters high then the health and safety precautions which need to be taken can be costly.
Therefore it is desirable to create a concrete wall section and a method of building a concrete wall with the low cost and convenience of using precast wall sections but with the strength and durability of a wall built in situ using shuttering.